EPA orders city to eliminate sewer overflows

The city of Springfield is under orders from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows that can occur during heavy rain. Officials say the administrative order, which took effect this week, will require the city to do more preventive maintenance on the system.

Officials say the administrative order, which took effect this week, will require the city to do more preventive maintenance on the city’s sewer system and add to the list of projects already identified in a 10-year capital improvement plan.

Public works director Mark Mahoney said it’s too early to say how much the work will cost the city. The federal government might dictate which sewer projects need to be completed and when, he said, but that, too, is uncertain.

Homeowners in some neighborhoods have complained for years of basement backups, which city officials have said are the result of storm water infiltrating sewer lines and overloaded combined sewers.

Several areas of the sanitary sewer system “have capacity-related issues during wet weather events,” John Higginbotham, head of the city’s sewer division, wrote to aldermen.

“In order to prevent widespread basement backups in these areas, the city pumps out of the sanitary sewer system and into the storm sewer system,” Higginbotham wrote.

The basement backups and the city’s pumping operations both constitute sanitary sewer overflows that violate the federal Clean Water Act, he wrote.

The city manually pumped into the storm sewer system 19 times between June 2008 and May 2010, according to data the city provided to the EPA. The city did so without a permit, which is a violation of the Clean Water Act, according to the order. Another 189 separate backups also occurred during that period.

The administrative order has been in the works for years, and the city is already addressing some of the problem areas, including Westchester subdivision. A $615,000 project is planned to increase the size of the main sewer serving the subdivision from 12 inches to 18 inches in diameter.

Sewer monitoring also is planned later this year in the northeast part of town. That $100,000 project will help the city develop a plan to eliminate several overflows in the area.

Those projects are included in the city’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget, which begins March 1.

Higginbotham also told aldermen that, currently, there isn’t enough money to comply with the requirements in the order. The mayor’s plan to increase the sewer fee to pay for $55 million in sewer work also does not factor in potential orders from the EPA, officials say.

The city and Springfield Metro Sanitary District are under separate orders from the federal EPA, which along with the state, has been pressuring communities to reduce untreated sewage and rainwater pollution.

The sanitary district submitted its plan to eliminate sewer overflows into surrounding waters to the EPA in late 2011.

Page 2 of 2 - The district is recommending $65 million in upgrades to both wastewater treatment plants, which would be paid for over time — 20 years at the Spring Creek plant and 17 years at Sugar Creek. Officials are still waiting to hear back on the district’s proposal.

Deana Stroisch can be reached at 788-1533. Follow her at twitter.com/DeanaSJR.

***

The order

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s administrative order requires the city to do additional reporting and sewer monitoring, in addition to the following:

* Implement a plan to report all sewage overflows by Feb. 28.

* Submit an Overflow Emergency Response Plan by April 15. The city says the plan is being finalized.

* Submit a Capacity, Management, Operations and Maintenance program by Aug. 13.

* Submit an alternative analysis detailing how and when each sanitary sewer overflow will be eliminated.